Short Story Library

you
are
a bowl of popcorn,
a slim volume of poems
and laughter
during a moment of silence.
you are
pink bubble gum,
a damn fool
and the only
person in the world
i care about.
you are
a clock with no hands,
a blue bedroom
and a
twenty dollar bill.
you
refuse to accept
the inevitable.
you own
way too many dresses
and you don’t
shoot pool.
you are
as uncomplaining
as the sea.
ultimately,
no one
can put you
into words…
not
even
me.
 
About the Author
John [...]

bullets
and
bombs,
guns, injection, the chair…
heart attack, cancer,
earthquake and
flame…
there’s
plenty of ways
to go,
but the hardest and saddest of all
is
boredom.
 
About the Author
John Yamrus
Since 1970 John Yamrus has published 2 novels and 15 volumes of poetry.  More than 900 of his poems have appeared in magazines around the world.  Selections of his work have been translated into several languages, most [...]

i make her a sandwich
with ham and lettuce.
adding a hardboiled egg
to the plate,
i give it to her
while she reads the paper in bed.
then,
i go downstairs and read
while my dog
snores quietly
in the sun.
some days are like this.
quiet.
what it all comes down to
is consistency.
that’s the key.
it doesn’t matter
what you’re talking about…
training a dog…
hitting a fastball…
writing a book…
painting [...]

Okay now…where should i start? i might as well start at the beginning. my name is John Yamrus and i’ve been asked to write a rather loosely structured poetry column for Short Story Library. this is a bit of a noble experiment that may or may not fall flat on its face.
first off…let’s get the [...]

that last drop
(the one that
usually ends up
on your pants)
shook off
onto my hand.
and it struck me
as pure and clear
as a line
from the Diamond Sutra
that no matter
how hard
we try to negate
or deny
our humanity…
we can never
really
shake it.
 
About the Author
John Yamrus
Since 1970 John Yamrus has published 2 novels and 15 volumes of poetry.  More than 900 of his poems [...]

okay, Mr. Death, you win…
i’m not so young and stupid
to think you haven’t
stacked the deck.
you own
the house.
you make
the rules.
but today
the victory
is mine.
today i’ve fought you to a standstill.
today
i’ve got this poem…
this glass of wine…
i’ve got
my wife…
my books…
and over there
i’ve got
that stinking,
snoring dog.
that’s victory enough
for me.
today, Mr. Death,
you lose…
and the glory
of the gods
is mine.
 
About the Author
John [...]

One of the questions i’m most often asked is “how does somebody go about getting their poems published?”  you know the kind of stuff…someone will invariably come up to me after a reading and say something like: “my son wants to be a writer.  he writes the nicest poems and wants to publish them some [...]